Press Release: Gov. Evers Delivers Radio Address on Expanding Wisconsin's Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit for Working Families

Hi there, Wisconsin. Governor Tony Evers here.  

And I have great news for working families across our state.  

I was excited this week to sign bipartisan legislation to expand our state’s child and dependent care tax credit and reduce the burden on families struggling with the high costs of child care. 

This will go a long way toward defraying yearly family expenses for child care, giving Wisconsinites some breathing room in their household budgets and making sure our kids have the early support and care they need. 

Simply put: the cost of child care in this state is too darn high. 

Making quality child care more affordable across Wisconsin is not just about doing what’s best for our kids—it’s also critical for keeping more folks and parents in our state’s workforce, too. 

So, we’re expanding the current law nonrefundable child and dependent care tax credit from 50 percent of the federal credit to 100 percent of it.  

We’re also increasing the maximum qualifying expenses that may be claimed for one child from $3,000 to $10,000 and for two or more kids from $6,000 to $20,000. 

That means more than 110,000 Wisconsin taxpayers will see an average benefit of $656 per filer, providing nearly $73 million in annual tax relief to folks across our state through the bill I signed this week.  

And that’s great news, Wisconsin. But I also know there’s more work to be done.  

We need urgent, long-term investments to further reduce out-of-pocket child care costs for working families and ensure child care providers can keep their doors open so that we can maintain our current levels of workforce participation.

And I’m ready to work with anyone from either side of the aisle to get this done.  

So, let’s get to work, folks. Thank you.